*he formation and transformation of social networks among well known local merchant houses in Meiji-period Japan

本研究以山梨县当地知名商户维护的社会网络为研究对象。战前，山梨县议会中有许多议员涉足银行业和发电行业。这些人经常在不同的企业担任不同的高管职位。结果，银行和企业之间形成了覆盖全州的社交网络。此外，还通过婚姻纽带建立了联系。科孚商会的商人和银行家保持的社会和婚姻关系*并没有延伸到科孚大都市区以外。重要的科孚商人并不寻求与该县农业区著名的当地商人建立婚姻关系。二战后，政党变得越来越重要，社会迅速变化。从土地和清酒生产中获得收入的县议员的数量减少，导致当地知名商人成为议员的数量减少。在20世纪60年代之前，大多数县议员都从事丝绸生产、建筑业或伐木业，这些行业通常活跃在议员所在的国家。然而，此后，参与当地工业的人数增加，到20世纪70年代，只有建造业的装配工人数才能增加。社交网络现在集中在特定行业的协会上；通过跨行业联姻建立的联系消失了。

This study focuses on the characteristics and historical changes in social networks maintained by well-known local merchant houses in Yamanashi prefecture.During the prewar years many members of the prefectural assembly were involved in banking and the generation of electricity. Such men often held various executive positions in different enterprises. As a result, prefecture-wide social networks between banks and businesses were formed. In addition links were forged through ties of marriage.The social and marital ties maintained by businessmen and bankers of the Kofu Chamber of Commerce did *ot extend beyond the Kofu metropolitan area. Important Kofu businessmen did not seek to establish marital ties to well-known local merchant houses in the farming areas of the prefecture.After World War II, political parties became increasingly important and society changed rapidly. The number of prefectural assemblymen who derived their income from land and sake production decreased, leading to a decrease in the number of well-known local merchants who became assemblymen. Before the 1960s most prefectural assemblymen were involved in silk production, the construction industry, or lumbering, usually industries active within the country in which the assemblyman lived. Thereafter, however, the number of people involved in local industries increased, and by the 1970s only the construction industry could show an increase in the number of assemblymen. Social networks now centered on industry-specific associations ; ties forged by marriage across industries disappeared.